Brit dad torn away from sobbing wife and kids and thrown in ICE detention centre during Green Card interview

Brit dad torn away from sobbing wife and kids and thrown in ICE detention centre during Green Card interview After living in Florida over 20 years, a British born dad was detained by ICE officers during his Green Card interview. Now his family is seeking support to bring him back to their home. A British-born dad has been torn away from his American wife and three-year-old twin sons after being thrown in ICE detention centre during his Green Card interview. Connor Read, 29, grew up in Chatham, Kent but has lived in Florida for more than 20 years - meaning he has spent more of his life in the US than the UK. He was detained by immigration agents on June 3 because he did not have sufficient permission to remain in the US and was subject to a removal order requiring him to leave the country. His family are now in a race against time to stop him from being deported from the country where he has spent most of his life. Connor is among more than 51,000 undocumented migrants being held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities - the highest number recorded since September 2019. Connor and his wife of five years, Jaelin, had been in the process of applying for a Green Card and were at their interview at the time of his detention. The couple took their marriage certificate, their twins’ birth certificates and a family photo album as proof of their marriage. Despite Connor had already completed the first stage of the process by applying for a I-130 petition, allowing him to apply for permanent residency during the meeting, ICE officers executed the removal order against him separating him from his family. He was taken to Pinellas County Jail before being transferred to the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Centre on June 12. Describing the moment her husband was taken away after a federal agent checked his passport, Jaelin said: “After a while, they called us back in and introduced us to an ICE agent who explained [Connor] had been detained. He told me that he was already being taken away from the building at that point. “I was grappling with the fact that I have to leave this building without him. I called my mom and I could only say, ‘They’ve taken Connor’. I was an emotional mess and crying. I drove to my mom’s house and just lost control.” Despite Connor’s detention, Jaelin later discovered his I-130 petition had been approved that same day. The approval means the family can ask a judge to reopen Connor’s case, potentially stopping his deportation and allowing him to continue with his Green Card application which will cost the family $4,000 (£2,981) just to reopen the case. Jaelin said they were now in a “race” to beat ICE to court and prevent her husband from being deported to Britain. She said: “Connor’s been here for 20 years. He’s been to elementary schools, middle schools and graduated from high school. He runs a business here. I don’t know why ICE has chosen now to detain. Things have got stricter under President Trump’s administration.” Connor was eight when he and his two siblings moved to America with their mother, Claire Anders. The family applied for Green Cards but Claire claims an allegedly fraudulent attorney stalled and "scammed" the family by taking their money and sending their application documents to a fake inbox. The family only became aware that their application hadn't been filled out correctly when they discovered a removal order against them in 2017. The attorney was the subject of a federal investigation, but the case was not strong enough to prosecute. Claire claims they were then wrongly advised that Connor had “aged out” of the family application and would need to apply separately. Claire later secured her own Green Card six years later after remarrying. But Claire said her son's detention did not come as a surprise to her. Speaking about the family’s fears, Claire said: “We know what ICE is like at the moment. They just want people without the right status out. So we are in a race against time to get his case in front of a judge before ICE can deport him. It has not come as a shock. I was worried about him going to the appointment, and we've been told that if we can get in front of a judge, we have a strong case to have the removal order revoked." Fearing the worst, Jaelin said she would move to Britain with their children if Connor was deported, she said: "My worst fear is having all this money put up and him still being deported. If we lose, we would have to close down our life here in Florida and start anew. I don’t care what it takes to be reunited, whether that’s here, or whether that’s in the UK. I cannot stand thinking of him being in that place.” Speaking about the heartbreaking conversations at home, she added: “My children have come up with the idea that their dad is at an entertainment park right now called Dinosaur World. We’ll absolutely go with that because I don’t know how to tell them what has actually happened.” A GoFundMe set up to support the family has raised $5,553 (£4,139) of its $10,000 (£7,454) target, to donate click here. The British Consulate in Miami said: “We are supporting the family of a British man detained in Florida.” The MP for Rochester and Strood, Lauren Edwards, said she was aware of the case and was providing support.